bvFTD

Question 1

bvFTD

Answer 1

Behavioural variant
- Most common; 50-70% of FTD cases
- Insidious onset
- Prev in women and men equal
- Earliest sign; subtle behavioural changes

Question 2

6 major symptoms

Answer 2

1. Apathy (often earliest sign)
2. behavioural disinhibition (socially inappropriate,
3. Loss of empathy
4. Compulsive behaviour (repetitive, stereotypy speech)
5. Hyperorality (putting stuff in your mouth, altered food preference)
6. EF deficits; visuospatial functions and memory relatively preserved

For diagnosis; at least 3 symptoms must be present as well as
- significant functional decline
- imaging results consistent w bvFTD (atrophy or hypometabolism in frontal areas)

Question 3

Neuropathology

Answer 3

Initially degeneration in anterior temporal and frontal areas
- anterior cingulate gyrus
- dorsal anterior insula
- lateral orbitofrontal cortex

With progression disease;
- widespread damage in frontal and temporal areas

Question 4

Early stage

Answer 4

Performance neuropsychological tests may be normal
- First decline in EF tasks
- Memory, language, visuospatial functions spared
- Emotion processing, behaviour and language during testing may be abnormal

With progression
- memory and other cognitive functions also affected

Question 5

Cognitive impairment

Answer 5

Relative to healthy controls, impairments in;

• Memory
• EF
• Language
• Visuospatial abilities

Relative to AD, bvFTD perform better on all task except for 2 EF tasks (error sensitivity & lexical fluency)

Question 6

Personality changes

Answer 6

Changes in behaviour and personality are typically the first and most salient symptom

• precedes cognitive impairment
• Can dramatically change the person
• Person themselves are unaware of the changes, therefore informant report is very important